1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for measuring and monitoring the transmitted power from cellular antennas and reporting that measurement over AISG protocol to the user at a remote location. The monitor is retrofit into existing cellular antennas and is capable of connecting directly inline with existing signal lines, saving valuable interface ports on the antenna.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunications antennas operate at a wide variety of bandwidths, and a wide variety of transmittal power is needed depending on the particular bandwidths being transmitted by an antenna. These bands include but are not limited to CDMA, GSM, DCS, UMTS, WIMAX on 750 MHz, 850 MHz, 960 Mhz and 1800/1990 Mhz and 2100 MHz frequencies. In certain applications, it is important to be able to measure this power output in order to determine whether the antenna is functioning correctly and delivering the proper signals at the proper bandwidths.
It is not uncommon for new telecommunications antennas to include power monitoring hardware built into the antenna itself. However, antennas that have been in use for some years may not have such hardware built into them. Additionally, not all new antennas will include such built-in hardware, because not all usages of the antenna will require power metering and monitoring. Therefore, it is important to be able to retrofit a metering device onto the antenna in the field for remote monitoring.
Modern telecommunications antennas are built with additional interface ports for connecting signal monitoring or boosting devices, or other devices used in connection with the antenna. Because of this, it is important that a retrofit device be universally adaptable, while not taking up a valuable interface port when there are none to spare. Groups have begun to standardize telecommunications antenna interface protocols. One such group is the Antenna Interface Standards Group (AISG). The AISG protocol provides 3 possible standards at this moment: (1) V2.0 for RET and TMA; (2) provisional released AAS specification; and (3) under process CAD specification. A retrofit power monitoring device capable of interfacing with these standard interface protocols would be nearly universally usable in the field of telecommunications antenna monitoring.